I'll be eager to hear what others have to say about this.
I've thought a lot about buying a Kindle. Almost bought the first one. Then I thought again about buying a Kindle 2. I even had one ordered, but changed my mind and canceled it before it shipped. Now I'm thinking a third time about the Kindle 2DX.
While I have not seen a Kindle in person, I have seen e-ink displays similar to the Kindle (Sony's eReader). I know it's impressive. I know it's a super-sweet gizmo. I know I'd find a use for it and probably be one of the 'don't know how I lived without it' kind of people.
But for me, it just doesn't come close enough to my necessary price/enjoyment ratio. I think it's too expensive for what it is. $300 is sort of the mental barrier for me. When I see the Kindle, I think $249 is a more realistic price for such a piece of technology, considering I could buy a Netbook for $~300 that's much more capable as a computing device. No, it won't have that super-slick eink display in a super-thin chassis, but it can read eBooks too, play solitaire, and VPN into my work PC.
And I think Amazon's eBooks are too expensive. I've cross-checked every book I've purchased in the past 6 months to what it would have cost on a Kindle. Of the ones available for Kindle (~50%), I would have saved about $2.00 per purchase vs what I spent at the local Barnes & Noble for the dead-tree version. Even hardbacks. I suppose it would add up over time, but not fast enough for me. Of course, some would argue that the point isn't about saving money per book, it's about having all of your books with you. And you're paying for the convenience of that in the Kindle's price.
I'm not a luddite when it comes to technology. I can't count how often a friend or colleague has asked, 'so you don't have a Kindle yet?'. But I find myself
wanting to want a Kindle, more than actually just
wanting one. If that makes sense. And I sort of question the appropriateness of spending a not-insignificant amount of money on that sort of a purchase. Perhaps that's the 'recession' working it's magic on my psyche.
And I find even less of a desire to own any of the other eBook readers. If I were to own a reader, to me the whole point is the instant gratification of having the text. I don't want to have to rely on a PC/Mac to download & sync up the data. Just doesn't appeal to me. With Amazon's infrastructure, they deliver that. None of the other readers can do that.
At the moment, I'm holding out hope for Apple's rumored netbook/tablet for my next 'wow-wee-StarTrek' gizmo purchase. I want to wait a few months and see if that pans out. Could be a game-changer. Or it could be vaporware.
